Why Is The 15th Amendment Important

I sincerely regret that an appointment of long standing...will make it out of my power to be present at the City Hall on Thursday. I feel it a positive deprivation not to be able to join in the home demonstration of joy and gratitude. The revolution wrought...by the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of The United States, is almost startling, even to me. I view it with something like amazement. It is truly vast and wonderful, and when we think through what labors, tears, treasures and precious blood it has come, we may well contemplate it with a solemn joy. Henceforth we live in a new world, breathe a new atmosphere, have a new earth beneath and a new sky above us....Equal before the Lord, equal [at] the ballot-box and in the jury-box,

For the first time, African-American men across the country were legally permitted to vote. It was a significant step in the journey toward racial equality. The amendment was ratified in 1870, as the U.S. was struggling to recover from the Civil War. The war had destroyed its unity, ruined its economy, and killed well over one million people.

The Fifteenth Amendment was the third of the Reconstruction Amendments. This series of changes to the Constitution was designed to help create a country in which all men, regardless of race, enjoyed equal rights and liberties. This last of the three amendments to the Bill of Rights guaranteed the right to vote to all men (it did not include women). This right for men was regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of [slavery]."

Problems with the New Amendment

As was to be expected, the vote to pass the Fifteenth Amendment was split along party lines. Every Democrat in Congress opposed it. Except for three lawmakers, every Republican voted in its